Third year has begun and projects are very quickly underway, putting in extra hours at the studio is already a necessity.
As part of a new scheme we were to choose a module to study each semester, for this one it’s ‘Advertising & Branding’, I’d be lying if I said that a fascination with Don Draper wasn’t a deciding factor in this.
After our initial lecture introducing us to the topic, we were made aware of a few different strategies used for marketing purposes, and the amount of stages an idea goes through before it reaches the ‘creative’ process, leading to the things we see and may associate with the idea of a ‘brand’. Logos, advertisements, colours and taglines being several examples. These all come last and are what’s made visible to the public, what we may not be aware of is the thought process that takes place to reach that final outcome, nothing is by accident, everything has been consciously planned out in order to leave the biggest effect on us, the consumers.
We were introduced to the SWOT Analysis, Ansoff Matrix and Perceptual Mapping. These were then to be applied during a ‘Marketing Strategy Workshop’ that took place on Thursday.
Split into groups we were to decide on a client, after partaking in a brainstorm over the Student Union, we decided there wasn’t enough issues to latch onto that we could improve, so we chose the soon to be built V&A Museum in Dundee to give ourselves more of a challenge on what we could come up with that could improve their marketing focus. We chose to tackle the issue on how the V&A could attract people that don’t usually visit museums. This was something I was familiar with from last year when a never to be forgotten trip to Mecca Bingo took place, to experience the realisation that you can feel uncomfortable in places that you aren’t used to/don’t feel suited to. So how do you get people who may have a pre-notioned image of what kindof institution the V&A will be, want to visit the V&A?
Perceptual Mapping
Our group (consisting of seven students from different disciplines) took part in a perceptual mapping exercise, we developed a diagram that grouped together why non museum goers wouldn’t go to traditional/new museums and why museum goers would. This let us see what obstacles our ideas would have to overcome. For example, grouped in the non-museum goers/traditional category were keywords such as “boring” and “seen it all before”, definitely negative notions on the subject. We decided that the V&A would have to prove itself as having an appeal for everyone, while still holding some sort of exclusiveness for those with a keen interest. We all agreed that a main problem was that people may associate regular museum visitors with a bad image, and that the opening of the V&A in Dundee isn’t being met with an overall excitement for the city, at least not yet. We then had a discussion on how we could involve the public image and get new visitors.
Main points:
- Outdoor public exhibitions
- Daily workshops for children & adults
- Outdoor cafe area
- Viral marketing (Flash mobs)
- Improving online presence
- Involving students in competitions/opportunities (as Dundee is a densely student populated city)
- Famous appearances (a novelty idea, but works effectively)
- Offering deals/partnerships with other museums/galleries in Dundee
These were all produced in a very short space of times, and based off the Perceptual Map formed earlier, which proved to be an effective tool. By having set statements to develop ideas from made the whole process a lot easier, and it was difficult to stop thinking of ideas once we got rolling. As the V&A hasn’t been built yet, and we’re not as aware of it as the other client offers, it allowed us almost start from scratch with no pre-conceived opinions on the topic, apart from what we’ve heard word of mouth.
In the afternoon we faced a real-life client, which added a whole lot of pressure & generated a whole new set of ideas.
To continue from the last post, about developing strategies for ‘make believe’ clients. Thursday afternoon saw us face a real life client in the form of ‘Little Riot‘, an interaction design company that was created by a former graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone. In particular we were looking at their current project, ‘Pillowtalk’.
Pillowtalk was described to us as a physical form of digital interaction, it’s aimed at long distance lovers and provides a way for them to interact in an entirely different way than the given phone call/messaging/skype options. The outcome allows a more intimate form of communication through the sound of each others heartbeats radiating through each pillow, something that would appeal to couples in long distance relationships. Some other options were put forward to what market this product would appeal to such as Mothers and children.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this product, as the promotion video went viral on youtube, I’ve been aware of it for some time, this made the project all that more interesting as Pillowtalk already has a strong following and is establishing itself as a highly innovative product.
Little Riot’s main goals are to challenge how people use communication and to create a whole new field in this subject.
Our aim for the day was to spot any weaknesses or issues concerning the product and find ways to improve them and/or find methods that would lead to greater sales and customer satisfaction. We took a different route with this client and used the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats)analysis method in order to gain a better understanding of where Pillowtalk is doing things right and where it could look to advance, we paid specific attention to the Weaknesses & Opportunities part of the analysis, we didn’t believe there were any threats to the product as it seems to be very much it’s own thing and holds no rivals doing the same idea.
We spent alot of time discussing what we found to be the biggest weakness, which was that the pillow only offered a sound & vision experience, and didn’t seem to offer any kindof vibration option as we had in mind how a deaf/blind person would be able to use the product. We came up with the somewhat novelty idea of including a smell option which at first seemed completely out of the question, but after a few deliberations we presented with the idea of how it could link with a perfume scent as alot of people associate another person with a specific smell, whether it be aftershave or perfume. This would add an extra feature for those wanting to personalise their Pillowtalk even further, which we all agreed was something the product should latch onto, personalisation. We also came up with a few ideas relating to whether the ‘ring’ could be in the form of something else for those not wanting to wear jewellery, e.g – patches, waistbands, engravings. There was even a mention of QR codes & Augmented reality, which although may be venturing into what’s only available in Sci-fi films, could fast become a reality in the next couple years.
Working for a real client and using marketing tools to generate ideas in a very short space of time proved how many different aspects of a company there are that have to be evaluated in order to move forward. It seems we could’ve spent a lot more time coming up with different directions the product could take, and listening to fellow groups presentations on improvements was proof that there was a huge variety of options available.
